


Choice

by Elri (angelrider13)



Series: Resist Order 66 [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Glen loves his brother and his General, Neyo is pissed off, Order 66, Order 66 doesn't go exactly the way it's supposed to, Read at Your Own Risk, Stass is horrified and just wants to keep her boys safe, Tissue Warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 11:01:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5414372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelrider13/pseuds/Elri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Good soldiers make hard choices.</p><p>Neyo likes to think that he makes the right ones.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Choice

**Author's Note:**

> Fair warning, guys: I totally cried while I was writing this. You're probably gonna need tissues.

They are on Saleucami when it happens.

It's a normal reconnaissance run on the Techno Union's latest activities. Get in, get the information and get out. Simple. Easy. They've done it thousands of times already. Neyo rather likes to think they're the best. He's not being boastful – it's just something that is. They're good at their job.

He and Glen are riding with General Allie, the sky overcast, making the landscape gray and dull with only the occasional spots of color provided by the strange, bulbous plant life that seems to thrive on this world.

Neyo's com beeps and he wonders if Knife's unit beat them to the prize. He seems to have some sort of competition with Glen going. With an absent shake of his head, he activates his com and –

 _Execute Order 66_.

Neyo is a trained soldier. He's too good to freeze up despite how much he wants to. Still, he feels like ice is washing through his veins and clawing at his brain. He raises his arm and makes a gesture to Glen to fall back and Glen _does_.

What the Sith hells is going on? This is not him. He didn't give that order. He doesn't _want_ to follow this order –

_Good soldiers follow orders._

Neyo growls at the voice echoing in his head. Good soldiers follow _good_ orders. They follow orders that are _right_ and not ones that are screaming at him to kill his General in cold blood. This is not supposed to happen. But it is. Even as Neyo struggles against it, he feels his body obeying the voice's demands. And the General doesn't flinch, doesn't look back at them, doesn't find it at all strange that her men have just fallen back behind her. And why should she? She trusts them.

He strains against it, tries to fight it off. He wills Glen to question his orders –

_Good soldiers follow orders._

– to do something, anything to warn the General about what's coming, what he's about to do. But that's when he realizes the same thing is happening to Glen. Glen who is younger than him by two years. Glen who has only been with them for nine months. Glen who was laughing and joking with General Allie only the night before. How could this _happen_? This is not them. This is not how the 91st does things, how they treat their own.

And for all that they are clones and she a jedi, General Allie is very much one of their own.

_Good soldiers follow orders._

_No, good soldiers question orders, you stupid kriffing voice_ , Neyo snarls right back.

_GOOD SOLDIERS FOLLOW ORDERS._

He feels his fingers curling around the trigger to his speeder's laser canons. He's going to shoot his General. Him and Glen both. They're going to kill her. And she won't ever know what happened. She won't ever know that she was killed by people she trusted.

Neyo would die for his General. He knows that any of his brothers would to the same. He knows that far too many have. But he also knows that his General would die for him, a clone. Just a clone. Nothing special about him. And yet his General – this natural born _jedi_ – would lay down her life for his without a second thought.

Neyo has a choice.

_GOOD SOLDIERS FOLLOW ORDERS._

No.

No they don't.

Good soldiers die for their Generals.

Neyo stops fighting for control of his body – he _demands_ it. He surges forward and seizes control with both hands and _holds_ just as his fingers start to squeeze the trigger. He doesn't have time to see what Glen is doing, if he's managed to fight it off or if he's still out of it. He doesn't have time to think about anything and his head is pounding and the voice inside him is screaming so loud it's ringing in his ears.

_GOOD SOLDIERS FOLLOW ORDERS._

Neyo jerks his controls to the side, slamming his speeder into Glen's. They both go tumbling and then his world is nothing but heat and pain and sharp, jagged edges. His vision whites out and he hears his General's cry of surprise turn to one of worry.

 _GOOD SOLDIERS FOL_ –

No. They don't.

Good soldiers do what they have to because it is the _right_ thing to do and damn the consequences.

Neyo hurts. He can't feel his legs and his vision is bright with fire from his burning wreck of a speeder. His helmet is gone and he can feel the heat against his skin.

"Neyo…"

The voice is cracked and weak, but he'd know the voice of a brother anywhere. He makes himself turn his head even though his body very much does not want to move right now. Glen is sprawled out a short distance away, his helmet gone, blood dripping from a gash across his forehead, arms twisted at awkward angles.

The sight hurts far more than he thought it would. He made his choice, he did, and he knows that it was the right one. But Glen is still his brother. His little brother. And he just killed him. And, god, how is he ever going to make that right?

"Neyo," Glen croaks, a small smile on his lips, "Thanks."

Neyo goes still. His eyes are flooding and his throat burns. "Glen…?"

"Was gonna…was gonna kill the General. Didn't wanna. Couldn't stop. So…th-thanks," Glen says and Neyo can tell it's a struggle for his brother to speak but he keeps forcing the words out anyway. "Gotta…gotta warn her."

Neyo swallows and doesn't bother to stop the tears in his eyes from falling. "I will," he promises, "Go to sleep, little brother. I'll see you on the other side."

"B'tter…" Glen mutters before falling silent.

Neyo has to turn away. He can't look at his brother – the brother _he_ killed – and see those glassy, sightless eyes or the relieved smile on his face.

He made the right choice.

He did.

Glen thought he did to.

But the right choice is never an easy one.

"Neyo! Glen!"

And suddenly, General Allie is there, looming over him. He can see her expression as she catches sight of Glen's body, the way her face crumples.

"Neyo, what _happened_?" she asks, small hands framing his face.

He feels the pain ebb away and knows his General is trying to use the Force to heal him. He reaches up and takes one of her hands in his.

"General," he says, feeling himself weakening even as General Allie tries to pull him back, "You need to leave. Order 66."

His General's brow furrows in confusion and her mouth opens to ask a question when suddenly her face falls in horror.

"What…?" she whispers, staring into space at something he can't see, her hands going slack against him.

"General," he says firmly, giving her hand a tug to pull her back to the present. She doesn't have time to get lost in the Force right now.

His General's eyes snap to his, horror dimming but not fading, determination rising up to take its place. "What's happening, Commander? What's Order 66?"

"Eliminate," Neyo forces out even as the voice in his head rallies against him. He tells it rather nicely to shut the hell up. "Jedi traitors."

General Allie's eyes go wide. "Eliminate? _Traitors_?" she asks in disbelief, "The Jedi are loyal to the Republic!"

"Know that," Neyo answers simply. "Can't fight it. It's in our _heads_. Told us to kill you. Was gonna," he admits, shamed by his weakness.

His General looks at him for a long moment. "But you didn't," she finally says.

Neyo smirks a bit. "Didn't wanna," he says simply.

General Allie shakes her head. "I don't understand; where did this order come from?"

"Supreme Commander," Neyo answers.

"The _Chancellor_?" she cries her eyes wide with disbelief.

Neyo nods. "Need to leave, General. 66's in our heads. Takes control and can't fight it. Stupid kriffing voice still shouting at me ta kill you an' I can't even move." She looks at him then and he can see the grief in her eyes. She knows he's dying. "S'fine, General. Go. Don' let us kill you."

"Oh Neyo," she whispers, her voice cracking and eyes wet, "What have we done to you?"

"Jus' a clone, sir. Don' matter mu – "

"Yes you _do_ ," she hisses fiercely at him, "You do matter. You are important. You are not just a clone. You are not just a number. Not to me. Not ever."

Neyo smiles. He's known that. For a long time he's known that. Still, it's nice to hear it out loud. "S'alright, sir. This is the right choice."

His General is crying. Tears are running down her cheeks and he's dimly aware of her grip tightening on him. She leans down and presses her forehead to his. "I never wanted any of you to die for me," she whispers.

"I know," he answers. Because he does. His General hates death, tries to avoid it as much as she can. But war is brutal and ruthless and cares little for the wants and needs for those trapped within it.

"It's been an honor, Commander," she says, and if she is trembling, he doesn't mention it.

He smiles. "May the Force be with you, General."

She presses a kiss to his forehead, runs shaky fingertips over his cheek, and then she's gone. His vision is going gray at the edges and he can't really hear anything anymore. But that's fine. Glen is waiting for him.

He was given a choice.

He made the right one.

And he doesn't regret it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I warned you guys.
> 
> CC-3423 doesn't have a recorded name that I could find, so I named him Glen.
> 
> For those who are curious, here is the story [tag](http://angelrider13.tumblr.com/search/resist+order+66) on my tumblr. It's filled with thoughts and frustrations and brain storms and such. Feel free to browse.


End file.
